Kate tiptoes around the table to avoid Frankie who is now laying at the base of the door. “He’s handling thatthing.”
“What thing?” I question Kate, who doesn’t respond, and look to Emma for an answer.
“Just an errand.” She waves me off. “Now, class is canceled tomorrow for set up. The seniors are using the day for their senior day trip and the juniors are—”
A knock at the door cuts Emma off, who is instantly frazzled at the interruption. She rushes to answer the door and Mrs. Herrera, with the school board, is on the other side, with another woman a little shorter and paler than she is.
“Mrs. Herrera.” I meet her at the door. “What can we do for you?”
“Are you ready for the meeting?” she asks sharply.
“Next week? Yes, we will be—”
“No.” She puts her hand up to stop me. “The meeting is in an hour.”
“What?” Kate runs to my side, wide eyes and worry all over her face. “It’s supposed to be next week!”
“Change of plans, the Vice Chair is having hip replacement surgery so it needs to happen today.” She reaches into the folder she is holding and hands me an updated memo from the board, with the meeting date and time changed. “We will see you in an hour.”
The two women go to leave. Kate and Emma look at me stunned. I pull my phone out and call Ellie, she doesn’t answer.
“We aren’t ready,” she says to Emma in a panic as I hang up.
“Ready for what?” I ask without looking at her, and pulling up Ellie’s flight information.
Of course . . . she’s supposed to land in an hour. Perfect timing.
“Don’t worry,” Emma says to both of us. “Alright, people!” she announces to the rest of the faculty, “Change of plans, let’s move!”
Everyone scatters quickly making phone calls, racing down the hall, breaking off into groups—like they’re on a mission I haven’t been debriefed on, and I’m a tad too freaked out about this meeting to even question it.
“We need to get you ready.” Kate drags me by the arm out of the break room, leaving Frankie behind. She should be fine.
I text Ellie again as we rush down the hall.
Chapter twenty-nine
Ellie
Iwasknockedoutthe moment the plane took off. Getting to the airport at six in the morning? Not a fan.
My interview went well, and I am so grateful for Duncan sticking his neck out for me to make it happen. I left feeling very confident of my decision and now I just needed to get home and tell everyone. It was a face-to-face conversation anyway.
When we reached the tarmac, I turned airplane mode off and was bombarded with text messages.Dingafterdingafterding. I quickly turn my volume off when every passenger around me glares at me for disrupting their off-boarding process. I mouth “sorry” to a few then sort through the messages.
A missed call from Benny.
Five from Emma.
About twenty from Kate.
I skip the stream of texts from the girls and immediately open Benny’s thread.
Anhour?
I check the time and see his text was sent forty-five minutes ago. I have fifteen minutes to get to that meeting.
“There’s no way,” I whisper to myself. I look up and over the seats of the plane before deciding to bolt down the aisle.
